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Princess Luna and the Festival of the Winter Moon
My Little Pony: Princess Luna and the Festival of the Winter Moon by G. M. Berrow is the seventeenth in a series of chapter books published by Little, Brown and Company and the second entry in a four-book miniseries called "The Princess Collection". In this book, Princess Luna finds out about a festival being planned to honor her as a counterpart to the Summer Sun Celebration, but she does not feel comfortable about the attention she will receive. Summary Royal Business On the morning of the Summer Sun Celebration, Princess Luna is feeling rather nervous, but her sister Princess Celestia assures her that everyone came to Canterlot to see her. In spite of her reservations, Luna greets the ponies with a smile. Two seasons later, in Ponyville, the Cutie Mark Crusaders tell Applejack that they are going to Canterlot to talk to Celestia about a secret idea of theirs. Applejack obliges but assigns Big McIntosh as their chaperone. On the train, the Crusaders discuss their plan to surprise Luna with a festival celebrating the moon as a counterpart to the Summer Sun Celebration. Princess in the Shadows Luna wakes up from a dream about confronting Nightmare Moon and sees the Crusaders entering Canterlot Castle. She overhears them talking to Celestia about the "Winter Moon Festival", of which Celestia approves. However, knowing Luna very well, Celestia tells the fillies about her sister's social uneasiness around others and that this festival should be kept a secret from her. Once the Crusaders return to Ponyville, they go to Princess Twilight Sparkle's castle to tell the Mane Six about it. The Mane Six also like this idea offer to help in organizing it. Guardian of the Night A few weeks later, Luna receives a signal on her magical map of Equestria about a disturbance in the swamplands. This disturbance turns out to be a conflict between a manticore and a chimera. After leaving a pair of white owls to watch over Canterlot, Luna sets out to address the situation. At the swamplands, the manticore and chimera dispute over which creature got to live where during the winter season. Using her Royal Canterlot Voice and ability to communicate with these creatures, Luna resolves the issue before heading to Ponyville for her dream duty. Luna flies into Ponyville Town Square when some decorations outside Sugarcube Corner catch her eye. The decorations all bear her color scheme, and a large banner reads "Winter Moon Festival". Luna briefly considers letting the ponies throw her this party. Later that night, Luna enters Apple Bloom's dream disguised as a white rabbit to spy on her. In her dream, Apple Bloom and her friends set up the Winter Moon Festival. Luna approaches Apple Bloom in her true form; when she realizes that Apple Bloom is unaware she is dreaming, Luna uses this to her advantage to make suggestions to "improve" the festival. The next morning, Apple Bloom meets up with her fellow Crusaders to incorporate these suggestions, including making everything dark and having everyone wear night-vision moonglasses. The Tarax Hippo Luna tells her royal guards Echo and Nocturn that she is going to Ponyville for a surprise visit. She meets with Twilight Sparkle and claims that a ghost-like creature called a Tarax Hippo is on the loose. Twilight goes to warn her friends about the Tarax Hippo—almost spilling the beans about the festival in the process—but Luna assures her that the Tarax Hippo won't approach as long as she is near. Luna then stops by the Crusaders' clubhouse to see them preparing moonglasses and garlic necklaces. Luna feels relieved that her efforts to sabotage the festival are a success. But when she hears the Crusaders talking about receiving help for the festival from Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash, she decides she has more dreams to visit. Dream Team Upon returning to Canterlot, Luna angrily confronts her sister about the Winter Moon Festival, telling her how she hates surprises. But Celestia contradicts her statement by reminding her of her additions to the Castle of the Two Sisters. Celestia suggests she simply play along for the sake of the surprise. Luna agrees, but in her head, she thinks of other ways to ruin the festival. The next morning, at Carousel Boutique, Rarity begins working on some "ceremonial cloaks" made of itchy wool, and Pinkie Pie tells her about her idea to use "invisible" decorations for the festival. Later, during a tea break, Rarity thinks back to a hat she purchased covered in yarn and tiny cats, but she suddenly doesn't remember purchasing such a hat. Upon realizing the absurdity of Pinkie's idea, she goes to Twilight's castle. There she finds Fluttershy leading a parade of ugly blue bugs she intends to release during the festival. When Applejack and the Crusaders arrive with spicy rainbow juice and banana peel pudding, they all come to the realization that Luna gave them these ideas in their dreams. Before long, the day of the Winter Moon Festival arrives. While monitoring ponies' dreams the night before, Luna noticed a dream of Lyra Heartstrings being chased by the Tarax Hippo, the very creature she told Twilight about. Luna finds this peculiar since Twilight was the only pony she told about the creature. Celestia walks in on Luna wearing a new gown for the occasion and presents Luna with a gown of her own. Soon after, the two princesses make their way to the festival. The Festival of the Winter Moon At the Winter Moon Festival, Rarity is the first to remark on the celebration's disastrous decorations, from the scratchy ceremonial cloaks she made to the horrid-looking bat-snowponies Rainbow Dash made. All of the Mane Six, except Pinkie Pie, and Cutie Mark Crusaders share this sentiment. When Celestia and Luna arrive, Luna feigns surprise at first, but she gradually realizes that the party is not in celebration of her mistakes as Nightmare Moon but for all her positive accomplishments. Suddenly, the festival is interrupted by Lyra, who is being chased by the real Tarax Hippo. Luna believes she may have accidentally summoned the Tarax Hippo awake when she told Twilight about it. Celestia attempts to zap the Hippo with her magic, but her magic goes through it. Luna observes the Hippo's behavior and realizes it was drawn by the garlic necklaces, which Zecora confirms. With the help of the other ponies and the manticore Luna helped before, the Tarax Hippo is driven to sleep, and Celestia sends it back to its cave in the Everfree Forest. After the Tarax Hippo fiasco, the festival resumes, and the manticore and chimera from earlier join in, at Apple Bloom's invitation. Luna starts to feel happier about the festival and admits to Celestia the wrongdoings she did to ruin it. Luna decides to fix the damage she caused by magically changing the festival into how it was originally envisioned. Luna apologizes to the ponies for what she did, and they forgive her with a big group hug. Quotes :Pinkie Pie: A party?! I was not expecting that. Heeeey! This thing must be broken! :Scootaloo: Squawk! Look—I'm a chicken! :Apple Bloom: This meeting of the Cutie Mark Crusaders is called to order! :Sweetie Belle: Can we make it fast? I couldn't sleep last night. Something really loud woke me up. :Scootaloo: Was it a big rawr-type noise? 'Cause I heard that! :Sweetie Belle: No, it was Rarity's snoring. :Apple Bloom: Boy, are we lucky that DJ Pon-3 and Octavia had all these extra moonglasses hanging around in their basement. :Scootaloo: What are moonglasses anyway? :Apple Bloom: They make it so you can see in the dark! You know, like night-vision. Also, they make me look really cool. Deal with it. :Princess Celestia: Thank you, Sister. Now, please go get some rest. Anypony ever tell you that you're rather unpleasant when you're tired? :Princess Luna: Gratias lunam et stellas. Thank you, my dear moon and brilliant stars for another peaceful night. :Rarity: Don't you all see? :Sweetie Belle: I see the mess we've made of the Winter Moon Festival. What are we gonna do?! :Rarity: Nothing! Obviously, Princess Luna visited us in our dreams to change the Winter Moon Festival because she knows about the surprise. And these are the things she wants at her party! She's just far too shy to tell us. :Rarity: What was I thinking? This has got to be the stinkiest, ugliest festival ever thrown in the history of Equestria! :Rainbow Dash: the Tarax Hippo We're not afraid of you! Except maybe your breath later! :Pinkie Pie: Wow! He's hungry! Like... hungry, hungry! :Zecora: Thanks to Luna, we've settled our score, and these noble creatures are no longer at war. :Nocturn: And for this, tonight we celebrate our dear Princess of the Night—Luna the Great! References